Have we talked about the Ford Taurus Police Interceptors?

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

 I had a SHO, and the transfer case fluid capacity is tiny, and it does bake if you abuse it, and it's technically non-serviceable. Now, you can change it, though it's kind of a PITA

I wonder how hard it would be to add a cooler?  Lower temps and increase fluid capacity at the same time.  Would likely need a pump as well. 

Do they use a form of 90 weight or what?

I'll add that ours had some weird handling characteristics in the rain and snow that for some reason the explorer's don't even thought I believe they share the same awd drive train.

STM317 said:

Transverse, twin-turbo, direct injected V6 with AWD sounds like the proverbial "10 gallons of crap in a 5 gallon bucket" to me. I can't imagine that much of anything is easy to work on.

Soooo, a modern 3000GT VR4?

In reply to NickD :

Haha! At least the Taurus doesn't have active aero that breaks.
 

Re the Chargers, my friend told me all the cops at his dept hate them. They miss the crown Vic/p71. He didn't say why exactly, just that the P71 was the better tool for the job. 

I am amused at the idea that a police Taurus will be neglected compared to a civilian one.

The police departments I have been involved with recognized that they needed their patrol vehicles to work if they were going to reliably be able to go out as necessary.  Taurus owners I have had come in for service, almost to a man, were of the "eh, it still moves under its own power" mentality.  This is probably why I never see any on the road anymore except for SHOs, which attracted a different sort of clientele.

The P71 was a good handling tank with a righteous cooling system, and they had interior room the likes of which drove most departments to use the Interceptor Utility (3.7l Explorer) but they had their problems. Lower control arms cracked all the time was the one that stuck in my mind.

I've gotten the distinct impression from SWMBO's sister and ex-BIL (both state troopers) that these are not well liked, at all. Despite the generous exterior dimensions, they're apparently quite cramped inside, and that's coming from two not particularly large people. I also feel like the ratio of Taurii to Exploders around here has steadily decreased in the post Crown Vic years, which says something.  

I've been shopping 9C1's and 3's and also seeing ex cop Chargers and Taurii in the process, and the Taurii are cheap

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

I am amused at the idea that a police Taurus will be neglected compared to a civilian one.

I was specifically talking about the transfer case fluid. Ford says that they are non-serviceable, and fleet owners are going to follow that.

Mr_Asa said:

Dodge? Having bad transmissions?  You are having a jape at our expense, are you not?

I have no love for FCA products or their quality, but I was under the impression that both of the trannies used in the LX cars were pretty robust. The older 5-speed was a Mercedes unit that was purported to be bulletproof, and the newer 8-speed is the same ZF that's used in a ton of premium cars and has an excellent reputation.

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

I can see them having issues idling constantly if they do not flow fluid to the cooler in park/neutral. They won't build much heat but they would get cooked by the exhaust.  Some Ford transmissions do this too, but IIRC only used in trucks.

This is something that they probably do not durability test for, like Diesel emissions systems and a lifetime of idling and putting around town.  They probably work flawlessly as a well used workhorse but not so much as a Prius C substitute.

I am sure it made sense at ZF, because who idles for eight hours a day?

We have a FWD NA Police Taurus at work that I have used a handful of times.  I was pleasantly surprised and how it behaved on the freeway, it didn't wallow, was not harsh and had decent power.  The one thing that I noticed was that they are not as roomy inside as you would think.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

The Crown Vics set a standard for reliability and durability in the face of hard use and abuse that will never be matched. 

*cough* Caprice 9C1 *cough*

In reply to Appleseed :

Most cops I've know from olden days, liked the 9C1 over the p71. But when the 9C1 went out of production, the p71 was head and shoulders above any of the others. The explorers in the last year or two are gaining, but that may just be 'cause they suck less than the current choices    The biggest complaint of the p71, was small tank/bad mpg when standing on the fast pedal. I know one that had to leave a several car high speed chase, to stop for gas! He was quite upset about it!

Mr. Peabody said:

I've been shopping 9C1's and 3's and also seeing ex cop Chargers and Taurii in the process, and the Taurii are cheap

I know what all the co cars ya mention are, except what's a "3"?

In reply to 03Panther :

A lot of agencies loved the old 9C1s.  Ford sold a lot of P71s when Chevy went to the new bodystyle in 1994, as the new one could be an order of magnitude more expensive to repair.

In reply to 03Panther :

9C3 is a detective car. Nicer interior, regular hubcaps. Looks like a regular Impala with the cop heavy duty parts

Appleseed said:

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

The Crown Vics set a standard for reliability and durability in the face of hard use and abuse that will never be matched. 

*cough* Caprice 9C1 *cough*

Ahem* Diplomat * ahem

In reply to Mr. Peabody :

Cool. Today I learned 3s 

In reply to chandler :

Now that's going old (ish) school!

A Utility Interceptor is my daily driver and I'm an EVOC instructor so I get to play with them on the track as well.  Our fleet cars are very well taken care of but I wouldn't buy one unless you're prepared for it to be a project.  I'll take a police Taurus or Explorer for patrol work any day of the week over a Crown Vic, so long as I don't have to work on it.  
 

We started off buying the EcoBoost-AWD combo but after like two years switched to the NA-AWD cars, mostly because of turbo issues.  High idle time is rough on any police car, but the turbos really don't like it.  Some of our cars would burn up turbos about every 30k miles.  
 

I'd be wary, and just understand what you're getting into. 

Kavenow said:

As for ease of work, they can be relatively straightforward, but like any vehicle, it depends on your level of expertise and access to tools.

Are they good at carrying canoes?

Why do we forbid the use of AI in our content? Among the many reasons, it all sounds like an 8th grade book report. And none of us needs to sit for a second round of that.

Margie

Marjorie Suddard said:

Why do we forbid the use of AI in our content? Among the many reasons, it all sounds like an 8th grade book report. And none of us needs to sit for a second round of that.

Margie

Feels like we do need to go back to kindergarten and learn to play nice though, sometimes. 

So since this thread was made, richs911 won the Challenge with one of these. One thing that was discovered is that the stock cooling system isn't great so expect upgrades to be needed if you want to run one hard for more than a couple minutes at a time. I took that car for a drive the same year, the straight-line acceleration is nuts, braking and cornering are surprisingly pretty good, especially considering how huge and heavy it is. It went into limp mode due to heat the 2nd time I entered the banked left 180deg turn though:

Supposedly, there was a recall on the SHOs where exhaust would get trapped in the hatch leading to a buildup of carbon monoxide- supposedly it killed some police dogs.